Cutting your marketing budget in tough times? 80% of businesses struggled to regain their previous growth
When revenue is under pressure, reviewing expenses makes sense. And marketing can look like an easy place to save.
But cutting an expense and improving your business aren’t necessarily the same thing.
If your marketing is helping pet owners find your clinic, generating bookings or keeping existing clients connected, pulling back can also mean becoming less visible at exactly the time you’re trying to protect revenue.
The better question isn’t simply “What can we cut?” It’s “What’s working, what isn’t, and where should we focus?”
Less marketing can mean less visibility
Pet owners don’t stop looking for veterinary care because your clinic cuts its marketing budget.
Google searches still happen. New pets still need a vet. Dental problems still arise. People still move into your area.
If the activities helping your clinic appear during those moments disappear, competitors maintaining their visibility have more opportunity to be seen instead.
That’s why visibility still matters when growth is harder to come by.
Don’t forget existing clients
Marketing isn’t only about finding new clients.
Newsletters, pet health information, reminders and useful website content help keep your clinic connected with the people who already know you.
When clients are thinking more carefully about where they spend, continuing to communicate the value of preventative care and keeping your clinic front-of-mind becomes particularly important.
Sometimes the opportunity isn’t another new client. It’s giving an existing one a reason to return.
The high cost of rebuilding after cutting marketing
Research published by Harvard Business Review looked at 4,700 public companies across three recessions. Around 80% of the surviving businesses had not regained their pre-recession growth rates for sales and profits three years later.
That doesn’t mean cutting marketing caused their slower recovery. But the research did find that the businesses most likely to flourish after a recession weren’t simply those that cut hardest. They balanced operational efficiencies with continued investment in areas including marketing and developing new opportunities.
The lesson isn’t to keep spending regardless. It’s to be selective about what you cut and equally selective about where you continue to invest.
The hidden costs of DIY marketing
Bringing marketing in-house can look like an easy way to reduce costs, but it’s worth considering where that work and cost actually goes.
If marketing becomes another task for a practice manager, receptionist or vet nurse, it takes time away from the work they’re already there to do. Managing Google Ads, writing newsletters, updating a website or creating social content can quickly add up, particularly when it sits alongside client calls, team management and patient care.
There’s also the value of specialist knowledge to consider. Working with people who understand marketing, specifically veterinary clinics, can mean less trial and error, more consistent execution and a clearer understanding of what’s working.
Before bringing marketing in-house to save money, consider the time, expertise and opportunity cost involved, not just the invoice you’re removing.
Optimising strategies over cutting marketing
If budgets are under pressure, the answer doesn’t have to be keep everything or cut everything.
Look at what your marketing is actually doing. Which activities are helping pet owners find you? Which are generating enquiries or bookings? Which are keeping existing clients connected? And where could something be adjusted to deliver better value?
You might refine a campaign, shift budget towards a higher-performing activity, improve your message or stop something that simply isn’t earning its place.
The goal isn’t to spend more for the sake of it. It’s to make the marketing you do invest in work harder.
That’s where having the right marketing partner can help. At Petpack, we can look at the bigger picture with you, identify where the opportunities are and help focus your investment on the areas most likely to support your clinic’s goals.